Strike a Light

Today I was at a Carbon Trust training session on energy management. It was fairly heavy stuff on power factor correction and other dark arts, but to lighten the load the trainer did a quick demo of domestic lighting. It was good stuff - all proven with a meter - so I thought I’d pass his wisdom on.

- The little red neon lights on extension cords might only use a tiny trickle of electricity, but if we all left two of them on constantly each, their total energy use in the UK comes to the output of a medium sized power station.

- A good quality instant-start compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) will cost you £21 over its five year lifetime compared to £82 for a standard tungsten lightbulb. Don't bother with cheap IKEA CFLs tho.

- You can get CFLs in all shapes and sizes including a new compact 7 Watt model which will replace those greedy little 50 Watt halogen lights that everyone is filling their homes with.

- A fluorescent strip light uses less electricity starting up than it does at full brightness – nailing that myth about how it is better to leave them on all day than switch them off when you're not using them.

- Most old-fashioned lights (including outdoor security lights) can be replaced with newer models that consume less than a third of the energy.

See!